Roni Sofer, "Waiting for Mubarak": Residents of Ashkelon, Sderot, and Gaza-region communities had another tough week. In the face of ongoing rocket barrages, some pinned their hopes on the national security cabinet’s meeting. Some expected the Israeli government to finally decide that it’s facing war, and fight back – a major operation that would push back terrorists away from residents of south Israel. However, these hopeful people apparently failed to grasp Prime Minister Olmert’s way of thinking. Olmert faces multiple pressures. On the one hand, the south cries out over the grave blows to Israeli sovereignty, through ongoing Qassam and Grad rocket attacks. On the other hand, as a veteran of Lebanon and Winograd, he does not with to rush into another war. Meanwhile, the international community headed by the United States, United Nations, and European Union do not wish to see the remaining hope of the Annapolis process crushed under Israeli tanks and Air Force bombs aimed at dismantling Hamas’ terror regime in the Gaza Strip. Wednesday’s cabinet decision is the result of a compromise with all the factors above. Even though there is not even one cabinet member who believes the current dead-end should continue, all of them decided that the IDF will not be embarking on a large-scale ground operation in Gaza. [...] Erlanger in Jabalia: Nabil Katari, 46, is a local organizer for the Fatah youth, and his brother is a prominent local member of Hamas. "I think Israel is strengthening Hamas by aiming at civilians," he said, a notion that Israel vehemently disputes. "People always sympathize with the fighters and the victims. Israel is turning Hamas into a victim."

Daniel Levy, "Rice, Gaza and Annapolis, What next?": Secretary Rice’s latest Middle East trip has drawn to a close and she is now heading back to Washington via Brussels. On being told by a reporter at a press conference in Ramallah that this was her 13th visit and asked whether she was bringing anything new, Condi responded that thirteen is not a lucky number so maybe she needed to come back again. Maybe the latest round of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, and the lack of progress in advancing either peace talks or improvements to daily life is just a case of bad luck and the superstitious spell of the number 13. Or maybe the application of misguided policies and the framing of a peace process in terms of good versus evil and the exclusion of the very people who are needed to secure a deal might just have something to do with it.

Kommentare:

It was an emotional decision to use that style, frame, method. And as long as they kill, the killings will be reported as the entry of a post.

"Disconnected from the mainstream and designated cognitive processes of the conflict" in style, rhetoric, argument, belive. This is a personal blog that challenges the mainstream in its personal way. Its a free space that is needed to escape the mainstream.